In our first installment of the 2010 Scholarship Contest Look Back Series, we wanted to give you a behind the scenes look into the very interesting and creative idea behind 2010 Scholarship Winner Dawnee Burson’s winning entry.
As Dawnee explained it in her letter that she submitted along with the entry, “I wanted to do a Christmas calendar card with four layers, one for each season that could be pulled off the front of the card as the seasons change”.
In order to accomplish this, Dawnee started with a base farm scene illustrating the fall season. She then provided us with acetate overlays (sheet of clear plastic laid over a background) which depicted different seasons for the same farm scene. Each overlay would have its own painted details which we would then use to lay on top of the base painting in order to change the seasons. In the slideshow below, you can look through Dawnee’s interpretation of the four seasons. Look at the differences in the details between each version from tire swings in the summer version to a scarecrow in the fall version. We think Dawnee came up with an amazingly creative way to show off different seasons all while using the same painting as the base!
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Below is the summer overlay which Dawnee provided. As you can see, the empty areas allow for the details from the original painting such as the mountains and forest to show through while also being overlaid with the new additions such as the tire swing and roof.
Acetate Overlay depicting Summer season.
We hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look into just how creative Dawnee’s winning entry really was. We hope you come back next week as we continue to reveal even more about the 2010 Scholarship Contest!
For the final post of our 2011 Scholarship segment of the Scholarship Look Back Series, we wanted showcase the beauty and elegance of our Religious Card lineup that Whitney Fuertes’ amazing 2011 Scholarship winning design has been added to. Her wonderfully depicted Nativity Scene and was an amazing addition to an already exquisite lineup.
You can browse through the gallery below to see a sampling of cards that we have from our Religious Christmas Cards Section depicting the Nativity Scene. Click on each image to get a more detailed description of the cards and their designs.
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It’s always amazing to see how many different styles and designs can be used to depict the same scene. In Whitney’s case, she chose to depict the three wise men as they surround the holy family with gifts in what was originally a beautifully detailed hand drawn image.
Our newest update in the Create-A-Greeting-Card ScholarshipLook Back Series is an interview with the 2011 Scholarship winner Whitney Fuertes. We love getting in touch with past winners to see how they are currently doing. In Whitney’s case, she has just finished up her first year at Grand Canyon University and is working part time on campus while volunteering at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital weekly. However, it looked like things might have been a bit different for her if it weren’t for the $10,000 scholarship prize. Check out the interview below to find out just how much the scholarship helped her.
Interview with Whitney Fuertes
2011 Scholarship Winner Whitney Fuertes
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1. How did you hear about the scholarship contest?
I first heard of this scholarship through a website called Zinch.com, when I received an email notifying me about the opportunity.
2. How many scholarships did you apply for?
I have applied to about fifteen to twenty scholarships.
3. What was the idea behind your entry?
My grandparents had called us a lot from Mexico throughout the week asking my family about what we were planning on doing for Three Kings day, and my mom had suggested the idea about drawing an image about it.
4. Did you create the entry specifically for the contest or did you submit a piece you already had?
I did create the drawing specifically for the scholarship.
5. How long did it take to create your entry?
I worked on it for about a week with each day spending two to three hours on it.
6. Does your entry have any special meaning to you?
Yes it does, my Grandma was one of my inspirations when I was younger to draw and create what I loved. She always helped me create drawings before she passed away and learning to draw helped me out so much.
7. Where were you when you received the news that you won the $10,000 Scholarship prize?
I was at home getting ready to go to work when I received the first call letting me know that I had won the scholarship.
8. What was going through your mind when you found out that you won?
The first thing that popped into my head was, “Is this really happening? Did I just really win a 10 grand scholarship?”
9. Who was the first person you told after you found out that you won?
The first person I told was my Mom since she was the person right there with me then I called my Dad and told him what happened.
10. Did you celebrate in any way?
I went out to eat at my favorite restaurant with my family as well as going to celebrate with my best friend and play soccer.
11. Have you recommended this contest to other people you know?
Yes I have, I know a few people younger than me that love drawing and have the talent and potential to create beautiful art work.
12. Did receiving the $10,000 scholarship change your school plans in any way?
Yes it did greatly! I was planning on going to a community college and even considered joining the military since I was struggling at the time and wanted to better myself.
13. How did receiving the $10,000 scholarship help you with your education?
It helped me with paying for a majority of my tuition.
14. What did you use the $10,000 for?
I used it to pay for my tuition and housing.
15. Which school did the $1,000 prize go to?
It went to my high school La Joya Community High School.
16. What was your schools reaction to receiving the $1,000 prize?
They were very grateful and thankful for receiving the money.
17. What are you currently doing?
As of right now I just completed my first year of college, working part time on campus and volunteering at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital weekly.
18. What did you or are you planning on studying in College?
I am currently going to Grand Canyon University home of the Lopes, “Lopes Up!”
19. What are you planning on doing after you graduate school?
My two biggest goals are to be able to travel and help in third world countries and work at the children’s hospital as a registered nurse.
20. What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about entering the scholarship contest?
Never give up! Always try and try and don’t forget to create something different something you don’t see normally, something when people see it will think that is something different.
21. Were you always interested in art or design?
I have always loved to sketch and draw random things as a stress reliever since I was younger.
22. How did it feel when you first saw the card produced with your design?
When I saw my drawing as a card I couldn’t believe it, to this day I still cannot believe that something I drew was created into a beautiful card.
23. Do you still have one of your cards?
Yes! My family loved the cards so much that they ordered some.
This concludes our interview with Whitney Fuertes. We loved having a chance to catch up with Whitney and see just how much of an affect the $10,000 Scholarship had on her life. Moments like these really allow us to see just how much this scholarship program means to students and gives us the continued motivation to keep going!
Check back next week when we finish up our 2011 Edition of our Look Back Series with some of Whitney’s favorite cards from our own line!
The 2012 Scholarship Contest was a blast for all of us and was our largest contest yet! We received over 13,000 entries and were busier than ever sorting through them all. In the end, Kathy Zhou was selected as the winner with her beautiful design featuring an Ornament composed of various Christmas themed wording.
We invite you to come back soon to get a behind the scenes look into the 2012 Scholarship contest with things like an interview with Kathy Zhou, a look into the transformation process from the entry to the card and much more!
Congratulations to Kathy Zhou of Philadelphia, PA! She is the winner of our 6th Annual $10,000 Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Contest! Kathy is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania who is studying Computer Science with a minor in Design. She has created a beautiful design that features a unique and creative representation of a traditional Christmas image. Kathy submitted a design that is 100% original, and we can’t wait to see the finished product! Our judges had a truly difficult decision to make as there were so many creative entries in the finalist pool, but we think Kathy’s design will make a truly amazing card.
Here is the design Kathy submitted:
Kathy Zhou’s winning design for the 6th Annual $10,000 Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Contest
The 7th Annual $10,000 Create-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Contest will begin on March 18, 2013. Be sure to visit the entry page to reacquaint yourself with the rules and guidelines. You may also check out our newly updated winners page to view the designs submitted by our previous winners and to get inspired.
We have arrived at the third and final part of our “Making a Winning Doodle into a Dazzling Christmas Card Design” series. So far in Parts 1and 2, we’ve gone through the process of scanning the image, cleaning the image up, changing the artwork to fill space, and separating the image to determine colors and finishing techniques. We’re almost done, and soon we’ll have a beautiful holiday card.
The creative team has gotten together to give critiques and advice on how they feel the design should look. At this point in the process the Creative Coordinator decides which colors and styles will be tested. There are many different colors of paper stock, and some of these different colored stocks will be tested with various inks or foils, depending on the design. The card is sent to production so the creative team has a chance to actually see all the different choices, and decide which will be the best-seller.
Here is a look at the design in the early process of separation to see which colors or foils would look best.
When the cards come back from production there are many different styles to choose from. This is an important step in the design process, as the Gallery Collection is always looking for the most visually appealing and creative Christmas cards. Here are some examples of the different foils and colors that were tested to determine the final appearance of our winning card.
Some of the different color combinations to choose from included buff cards with green foil, and white cards with multi-colored foil.
The Gallery Collection also offers a wide array of beautiful dark stock cards. Since there were so many options we just had to test them all!
The creative team will once again gather to review and discuss the different holiday cards. They will decide what works and what doesn’t work in terms of color, style and finishing. They will also decide if any revisions need to be made to the final design. With so many choices and options, this isn’t always an easy process. But in the end it’s worth it, as the Gallery Collection has some of the most visually stunning cards available.
After much discussion, a final design is chosen. It combines the beauty of Lauren’s winning artwork with the amazing skills of our creative team. Two amazing cards were made from this one beautiful design, and they will truly take your breath away!
Design #798CW - Holiday Tree Christmas Card
Design #730CW Snowman Surprise Christmas Card
Every design that graces the cover of our catalogs and is displayed on our website must adhere the high quality standards of the Gallery Collection. Changes are made to most designs, whether it’s sizing, color, or addition of foil. So whether the design has been submitted by one of our talented artists, or the design is a scholarship winning contest entry, they all go through the same process. This ensures that we always have the most beautiful, high quality greeting cards around.
In Part 1 of our “Making a Winning Doodle into a Dazzling Christmas Card Design” series we discussed the scanning process of the original artwork from the scholarship contest. Now we delve further into the process of creating a card.
The original artwork is given a Hi-Res scanning into our system, where a graphics program makes the image nice and crisp. This cleaning process makes the art suitable for reproduction. Once the image is set the production person, or Imager, gets to work.
The Imager has many different things to do at this point. Lauren’s artwork needed to be changed to fill space. The original piece was vertical, and the personalized Christmas cards that will feature this design will be both vertical and horizontal. The artwork is proportioned for a horizontal holiday card so that all the aspects of the original design are not lost.
This is Lauren’s artwork after it has been scanned, cleaned and revised.
The image then goes through a separation process. The Imager prepares the file, determining the different colors and finishing techniques to be used on this particular Christmas card design. There are many different options for each piece of art, including ink color choices, die-cutting, foil stamping and foil embossing.
The creative team will gather together and discuss these choices. Everyone will share their insights and give critiques and advice on how they feel the design should look. This creative input helps to make the final design a unique vision for the Gallery Collection and the Christmas card itself a thing of beauty.
The artwork that Lauren submitted to the scholarship contest is coming to fruition through the hard work and creative minds of the Imagers and everyone on the creative team. This design will become personalized holiday cards that Lauren, and everyone at the Gallery Collection, will be very proud of.
Coming up in Part 3, our final installment, we’ll share how the final decisions on colors, foils and the appearance of the card as a whole are made. You won’t want to miss this!
How exactly do we take the simple line drawing submitted by Lauren Ondreko, winner of our 3rd annual Create-A-Greeting-Card $10,000 Scholarship contest, and turn it into a potential best seller in our Christmas cards line? You are about to get a rare glimpse inside the process of how a leading publisher of business Christmas cards (yes, that would be us) works some holiday magic!
The contest was a very exciting one this year; with so many talented student artists and photographers submitting their work, the decision was a difficult one. After much deliberation, we finally chose the design submitted by Lauren Ondreko from Friendswood High School in Friendswood, Texas.
Lauren’s artwork, a beautiful line drawing filled with symbols of the holiday season, turned out to prove a somewhat controversial choice as our winner of the $10,000 prize. It was a truly fine piece of art that just so happened to be submitted on a sheet of loose leaf paper! The submission style of the art work caused a bit of a stir, but in the end it was the design that won, and not the medium on which it was received.
Here at the Gallery Collection there is a wonderful creative team who, year after year, successfully turns out some of the most beautiful and original Christmas cards in the greeting cards market today. So just what did they do to this winning doodle to make it into one of our holiday cards that people everywhere will want to purchase?
It all started with the design itself. The original design received a Hi-Res scanning into our system. Once the image had been scanned, it was cleaned up with a graphics program. This takes all of the fine line work and makes it smooth and neat for reproduction.
Here is the original artwork submitted by Lauren for the scholarship contest.
This is what Lauren’s drawing looked like after it had been scanned into the system, but before the image had been cleaned up.
The artwork cleaning process is an important one. Sharpening the image makes the art suitable for reproduction, which in turn makes a beautiful holiday card. Without this process the image could appear rough or blurry, and would be unfit for use. Once the image had been properly taken care of the production person, or Imager, got to work their own magic on the design!
The next step of the process will follow the design as it moved through the Imager’s hands. Lauren’s art was ready to begin the creative journey of colors, spacing, and everything else that would make it the dazzling Christmas card it was destined to become. Stay tuned for Part 2 and Part 3, where we will give you the inside scoop on just how that happened!
Congratulations to Dominique Pankey of Appomattox, Virginia! She is the winner of the The Gallery Collection’s 1st Annual Write-A-Greeting-Card Scholarship Contest and will experience the adventure of a lifetime by joining the “Foxtrot” fleet for Sail Caribbean’s marine-based environmental service program in the Caribbean. Below is the message that Dominique wrote to President Obama:
Dear Mr. President,
My name is Dominique Pankey. I’m 16 and a junior at Appomattox County High School in beautiful, historic Appomattox, Virginia. As a young person, I am concerned about the issues confronting us today and how they will affect the world I will face as an adult. A very bleak picture is painted in the media and I have to wonder, what will be left for us?
Americans have to face the reality of our energy problem. Alternate energy sources must be explored in order to reduce our dependence on foreign oils. Middle Eastern oil cartels have held Americans “hostage” at the gas pumps and will continue to do so until we take steps to insure our security.
Renewable resources such as wind, solar and bio-fuels could not only take steps towards independence from foreign oil but create much needed “green jobs” to help stimulate our economy. America’s greatest resource is our wonderful, diverse and diligent work force coupled with the brightest scientific minds.
“Green jobs” and renewable energy sources would also reduce our carbon foot-print on the world, providing my generation with opportunities to achieve the American dream and live in a safe, more secure and independent nation. America and its people are leaders in the forefront of this battle. I think now and always we will believe America is the greatest country to live in and I am proud to be an American.
Submitted by Dominique Pankey from Appomattox, VA, a junior at Appomattox County High School
Here are the messages submitted by the 4 other finalists. Visit the honorable mentions page to read the 15 entries that merited special recognition. Job well done to all!
Dear Mr. President,
I read in a recent issue of National Geographic magazine an advertisement which featured the quote, “The biggest impact we can have on our planet is not to have one.” This succinct advertisement truly embodies why we need to go about developing innovations that will offset our wrongs and redevelop our way of living to suit our fragile planet. In 2008, a carbon emissions record was reached with a staggering 8.38 gigatons of carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels alone. The United States and China contributed one third of the total emissions. If you consider that there are approximately 75 million functioning cars between American and Chinese owners, it is reasonable to assume that we use trillions of tons of gas a year. In fact, the United States consumed 7.2 trillion gallons in 2008 alone.
Even though these overwhelming statistics reflect our negligence, new technology and my generation’s innovative tenacity leave me optimistic for Earth’s future. The United States is a leader among countries and its citizens are quickly catching onto environmental issues and becoming more globally astute. One by one, we are beginning to realize the repercussions of our inefficient lifestyles. Thousands of towns across the US, including my own, readily await advances in solar and wind power. Mr. President, inspiring an entire country to recycle and reuse will not only unite us all, but will change Earth’s fate for the better.
Take the lead…we are ready to follow in your non-carbon footprints.
Submitted by Carley DeFranco from Rush, NY, a senior at Rush Henrietta Senior High School
Dear Mr. President,
Our earth is a precious thing; it is a source of joy, love, sorrow, pain, and inspiration for all of us who live on its surface. Whatever strange and miraculous series of events occurred to create this treasure is finished, leaving Earth and its inhabitants to utilize and respect its wealth of resources. Humans, throughout the ages, have been notorious for only seeing what’s coming in the next few days, rather than looking at the big picture. We’ve drained, abused, and desecrated this land which trusted us so unquestioningly in order to satisfy our unquenchable greed. This lack of conscientiousness will inevitably lead to not only the downfall of our race, but also the fall of this earth.
It’s your job to be the “big picture” guy. You need to realize the flaws in our system, to correct them, and to set a pathway for future leaders to follow. Renewable resources are one of the most effective ways to not only help the environment, but also to create American jobs. The technology for solar panels, geothermal energy, and wind power is there, but not cheap enough for mass marketing and production. If tax cuts were implemented for the use of green technology, green energy could become a profitable and growing market!
I hope it is evident to you that the government needs to refocus on the environment. Our earth is precious and we must protect it. Thank you for your time.
Submitted by Mallory VanMeeter from Lafayette, IN, a senior at freshman at William Henry Harrison High School
Dear President Obama,
Our dependence on foreign oil affects America’s most important issues. It is responsible for our economy, environment, as well as our security. Our ability to cut our addiction to foreign oil will decide our future. The continued use of unclean fossil fuels continues to damage our environment. The billions spent on seemingly cheap oil is more trouble than it is worth. We are handing out billions of dollars to countries that use that same money against us. Should these countries decide to stop the flow of oil to the U.S., our economy would be crippled. It happened in the 1973 Arab Oil embargo. Similar shortages were observed in 1979 and 1991. Do we really need another warning?
Energy Independence through renewable energy is a field that could secure America’s standing in the world. There would be a revival of thousands of jobs in old industries such as the auto industry as well as the creation of thousands of new jobs in new industries of clean, independent, renewable energy: Energy that works alongside the environment, not against it, preserving the place we live for all. Energy independence is necessary for the survival of our nation. Without a reliable source of energy, there is no innovation, no security, no progress. As Americans, history shows that we have and will solve obstacles before us, and energy independence is no different. I believe that energy independence through renewable energy should be one of your top priorities as President.
Submitted by Josef Dagher from Sterling Heights, MI, a junior at Adlia E. Stevenson High School
Dear President Obama,
Before reading this letter I invite you to look out your window. Just soak in the beauty of the outdoors for a moment, and then imagine what it would be like if it all vanished. Our planet is the greatest resource we as humans possess. It provides us with food to nourish us, water to refresh us, gorgeous landscapes to inspire us, and a breathtaking array of wildlife for us to enjoy. Yes, our planet is wonderful, and it is our duty to take care of it.
Over the past decade, world leaders have finally begun to take notice of our planet’s plight. Together, they say, we can stop the downward spiral and restore our planet; yet factories still spill out black smoke and rivers are still polluted. Now is the time to act; now is the time to save our environment, our home.
Mr. President, I urge you to implement a plan to protect our greatest resource. Wildlife preservation, alternative fuels, wind turbines, and tighter regulations on factories are all good ideas. These resources are at your finger tips; please implement them as soon and strongly as possible. Then there is the next step, of which I am sure you are well aware, seeking beyond the now and finding new sources of energy to protect our environment in the future. Every cent spent is worth it if we can preserve our whole planet, even the grass out your window, for generations to come.
Submitted by Deborah Finnegan from Grand Rapids, MI, a junior at The Potter’s House Christian High School
Dear Mr. President,
Dear Mr. President,